Folklore has spoken … Boks by 15
27 Sep 2012
MARK KEOHANE, in Business Day Sport Monthly, writes it will be the Boks by 15 against the Aussies at Loftus on Saturday. At least that’s what history says.
Perception too often is accepted as fact. The perception of excellence in Springbok rugby is an illusion. The fact is the Springboks lose a lot of Test matches and have done so consistently over the last century.
They have a win percentage that has on occasion threatened 65% but is closer to 60%. It has always been this way. There have been some magnificent teams. Equally there have been some shockers, who have taken beatings abroad and been humiliated at home.
Time dulls the memory. Results are forgotten, folklore ensures only the good times are remembered and the good in one era become very good. The 30 metre kick to beat the All Blacks is now 60 metres. The tough men of the early 1900s were man mountains and when the current pretenders deliver a depressing result, the obvious is to hanker back to the days when Bok midfielders were more imposing than town marshalls – all 76 kilograms of them.
The modern player would not survive the amateur era. ‘In my day,’ says a player, who forgets he ever lost a Test.
‘Steak, chips and a bottle of wine,’ says another. ‘That was the pre-Test meal.’ Those were the days apparently when men were men, the Springboks were something mystical and pasta was something only the Italians ate.
And so we romance the game, listen to the stories told by those who were there, who saw the 60 metre kick, although it could have been 70 metres and take comfort that the Springboks, if not today, then most days were destroyers of opposition dreams and the ultimate challenge in world rugby.
‘You win in the Republic. Then you can call yourself a rugby player. The South African public acknowledges you can play … boy then you can play.’
You’ve heard them all …
‘A wounded Bok is a dangerous animal … There is nothing as imposing as a Bok team written off … Beware the mighty Boks … Wait till you get to altitude …’
Then we recall a glory moment when the Boks were given no chance of victory and won; when the world dismissed the challenge of those giants in green and gold and were forced to concede the greatness of those rugby men from the Republic.
The storytelling goes beyond rugby. Historically, it has been a life identity. A Springbok … it is what every white boy dreams to become. Post apartheid it is what every South African boy wants to be.
In sporting isolation the legend rose more than it grew. Mortals were immortal and no team could claim anything until they had proved it in the Republic.
Thus, for 20 years, the Boks were the best team in the world. Our rugby was of superior quality; our players dominated every South African media World XV.
Our boys kicked 70 metre penalties (forget the small matter of altitude). Those blokes overseas, they can’t even knock them over from 50 (forget the small matter of sea level).
The television images don’t lie.
The rugby media, be it in print, on television or radio, reinforce the legend.
‘You can’t call yourselves the world champions until you beat the Boks.’ That’s our response to New Zealand’s claim to have won the first ever World Cup in 1987.
And then we hosted the 1995 World Cup final and beat the All Blacks 15-12 in a final that went into extra-time. Andrew Mehrtens, ironically born in Durban, had the chance to win it for New Zealand with a drop goal attempt from 20 metres out and right in front. His kick, with less than a minute to play of normal time, missed and the game ended 9-all.
It was God’s will, said the older folk. It was written in the stars said the team management. There was no way we could lose, said the players. A greater force was guiding them.
And don’t forget that when a Jew plays for the Boks, that’s even greater confirmation defeat is never a consideration.
The All Blacks, a year later in 1996, beat the Boks four times in five, with three of the wins in South Africa. They won in Cape Town, Durban and in Pretoria.
But when they lost the last of the five Tests in Johannesburg, order was restored and the Boks had again shown the Kiwis and the world just who was the best.
As the legend grew, so too did the belief that nothing but an emphatic victory every Saturday would suffice. A failure to deliver was treated with disgust; apparently such was the rarity.
‘How? We are the Boks … We don’t lose.’
But we do, too often when reality is measured against perception.
‘Not in my day,’ screams a newspaper headline. Another of yesterday’s heroes has given up on the jersey he once wore as symbol of superiority in everything rugby and most things generally.
‘I don’t watch the kids of today. They’re soft. I’d rather mow my lawn.’
The media fuels the frenzy. Another of the all-time greats, with a Test record of nine wins in 17, says he is embarrassed to call himself a Bok if the lot that just disgraced the jersey are still called Boks.
He is so disgusted at the Boks losing to Scotland he tells the media he is considering giving back his Bok blazer.
‘Scotland!’
Our game is in crisis. Legends want to mow the lawn and give back their prized green and gold Bok jersey.
‘It’s the blacks,’ say some. ‘They’ve destroyed everything and now they’ve even destroyed our rugby.’
Another of those giants of yesteryear is inspired to let the nation know there won’t be a future for the Boks by the year 2000.
The team will be black, they will be called something else and they will play in another colour jersey is his prophecy. But he no longer objects because at least the legacy of the green jersey, the Bok and the King’s crown won’t suffer more embarrassment.
‘This lot … in my day … when the game still had scrums, when a punch sorted the kings from the queens and when players could run, pass, dummy, side step and tackle … In my day.’
Bok rugby is again in crisis, screams another newspaper front-page lead story.
Apparently another legend of yesteryear is embarrassed. He is even thinking of moving to Australia because if he had ever produced such a passionless display he would have fled out of fear for his life; alternatively he would have done what men of those days did and claimed himself unworthy of the jersey and all things South Africa. He too would have fled the country, but the measure of his quality is that it would have been before they kicked him out.
The great grandfather is sullen. The grandfather tells the son it is because of the hurt at the Boks losing to Australia.
The blacks and ANC government are no longer to blame. It’s the cash. Professionalism and money are the evils.
The players are spoilt and greedy. Then the grandfather tells the eight year old. ‘Ah you would have loved it … Victor Matfield (paaaaleeeeeese). He wouldn’t have lasted a minute. Frik du Preez, now that is a lock. A giant of a man. Taller than anything these days, stronger, heavier and quicker than Habana. He could run, tackle, kick and pass. And boy could he scored tries, and he could drink.’
The boy logs onto the internet and wishes it was Frik out there earlier in the day.
The Boks he believed could not lose were not the real Boks.
The headline demands change. The coach must go; those imposters in green and gold must go. Alternatively, rugby in South Africa, as it was once known, will be dead.
Another of yesterday’s heroes says he fears the rest of the world thinks of us as Wales. He says there is no future for the game and he gives his 10 point plan to restore order the next week. It involves kicking out half the team and replacing the coach.
‘In my day,’ he tells the reporter. ‘Doc Craven would not have tolerated this. That guy’s career would be over. Those were the standards Craven demanded. This legend then boasts about the physicality of the Boks of his era and the brutality of the tackles and the magic ways of the wings and the length of penalty goals our flyhalves used to have to kick … in the wet, with a heavy leather ball, into a wind (not the breeze we get today … a wind) and in conditions that were mudbaths … not the carpets you call a rugby field.
Oh, and in those days you played for 80 minutes, he adds. You got up after being knocked out and you played. You broke your collar bone and you played. That was what the jersey meant to him and his teammates.
Now guys last 50 minutes and even that is too much because it is so easy to play club rugby in Japan for outrageous sums of money. It’s rugby’s blasphemy.
This legend too is thinking of heading to Australia where rugby union’s not even the first choice sport; yet those okes still beat us. What next?’
The national coach fronts the media, as if on trial for treason. A nation has been lied to, betrayed and insulted.
The coach promises the players will work harder, restore credibility and be true to the history of the jersey.
We hold our breath, we pat ourselves on the back that even in these foreign and dark times we can show such loyalty and we vow to watch the Boks the following week.
The grandson asks the grandfather if we can win.
‘We are the Boks,’ he says. ‘We don’t lose.’
And the grandson smiles. Order has been restored.
The legacy of the Boks is not dead. The game apparently is no longer in crisis and we will not be the Wales of rugby.
He logs onto the Internet and smiles even more. The legends of yesteryear won’t be going to Australia after all and one of the finest legends has laughed off reports that the Boks are a team that historically loses 40 percent of their Tests.
‘Not in my day,’ he has told the reporter. ‘And definitely not on Saturday. Boks to take it by 15 because we never lose.’
– This article first appeared in the October issue of Business Day Sport Monthly. The magazine is distributed free with Business Day newspaper on the second last Friday of each month.
703 Comments
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27 Sep 2012, 10:04 am
@Tacitus-94: Welcome back then. When you say brooding, do you mean being pensive, or producing babies?
27 Sep 2012, 10:04 am
Agg maar vokit.
Keo has gone all Shakespear on our asses.
27 Sep 2012, 10:07 am
@Tacitus-100: Id have liked to have seen Morras being given one more shot at Loftus.
But Im not crying myself to sleep at night about his omission either.
27 Sep 2012, 10:07 am
@Tacitus-100:
Tacticus you hendsopper you.
you left me, bakkies and the katman to fight it out with this wp/shark cabal.
that is not cool.
27 Sep 2012, 10:08 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl-104: Ons het hulle wel opgefok. Maar ja, nie baie cool nie.
27 Sep 2012, 10:08 am
@Liewe Luiperd-61: unles they have ‘matric’ in NZ too?
27 Sep 2012, 10:09 am
@katman-101:
Hehe. I did delay on that sentence for a few seconds, considering the possibility for misinterpretation of the word. Should have known you’d be the one to pick up the potential ambiguity the quickest.
Definitely being pensive, p*ssed off, disgruntled, carrying a pitchfork with a burning Blue jersey impaled on it etc. was the intended meaning.
Those guys need to sort their sh*t out. Heyneke left. And he took three quarters of our coaching team with him. Deal with it. The pathetic excuse for rugby that they’re currently producing in Pretoria is not acceptable, no matter the excuses.
27 Sep 2012, 10:09 am
@katman-105:
lol
fighting the good fight and all that jazz.
27 Sep 2012, 10:11 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl-104: “hendsopper”
Ooh.
Fighting words.
27 Sep 2012, 10:12 am
@Tacitus-107:
do you know if the bulls have replaced any of the coaching staff that left yet?
ironically, i really rate our players on the field in the cc team but we have been getting nothing out of our locks and defence has been a huge problem.
27 Sep 2012, 10:12 am
@Tacitus-107: And then there’s my lot, who are playing fantastic rugby but will be sent to a Siberian Gulag for most of next year. Funny old game this.
27 Sep 2012, 10:15 am
@Tacitus-107: True, fact is all the teams have excuses. Lions have the best excuse of them all as all their players are looking for contracts. Sharks have lost the most players to the Springboks. WP are playing with a hooker and Canadian in their loose trio. Cheetahs, Griquas and the Bulls probably have good reason to be 1,2 and 3, but they are 4,5,6.
27 Sep 2012, 10:16 am
@Tacitus-100:
i would have kept him on the bench at the very least, tac.
this isn’t about morne, it’s about the team standing a chance of winning in the event things dont go to plan (which i believe it wont).
goosen has tons of potential and talent and so too does elton (only shown it at cc so far but thats another debate) i just do not trust they will not fold under pressure and cost us the oz game.
and if we lose the oz game then meyer’s in the quandry of sticking with them for the nz game or recalling morne.
cant believe we giving our home tests away.
27 Sep 2012, 10:16 am
@katman-111:
unfortunately your lot are always the goods at CC, once again they bombed in superrugby.
….and then when the players hang their coach, that, in my opinion, is also not cool.
27 Sep 2012, 10:17 am
This team is becoming far too white…or still just as white…
If Taute lands on the bench (JdJ drops out) then Jantjies will be the only player of colour on the bench… So if Kirchner gets injured/subbed Habana and Beast will be the only players of colour on the field..And if Beast gets injured/subbed… Just Habs.
I dont care who plays for the boks, but it has such a positive effect on SA and the supporters view of the boks if players of colour get support and backing from the coach… There arent quota players anymore, and players of colour reach the highest level and become quality players at their franchises…But there is a trend that just does not seem to go away…
Jantjies (the best 10 after Goosen, who was injured) missed out on 5 caps due to Steyns numerous lifelines…why? This was a great opportunity to give a coloured player a deserving chance to represent his country…
Chilli ( the number 2 hooker ) would have hopefully landed the leading role, if not injured. And should be the first choice hooker (when back from injury) and stay the number 2 hooker if Bismark returns… Will he though?
JPP,if not injured, would have been wing…but Hougaard should never start at wing if we have gifted black players like Mvovo playing great rugby and just happens to be a specialist winger…
Aplon should be in the mix some how, be it at 15 or off the bench…but isnt apparently due to his size…His selection would have been a huge improvement if he was selected ahead of Kirchner…
I personally dont rate JDJ but he should be pissed that he’s not even considered as a sub after being in the mix for so long and with no game time. But Taute is bigger so sorry Juan here’s a tackle back to carry.
Kolisi (when back from injury) and Coetzee imo can be rotated. They are on par in my mind, different players in some ways, but Kolisi definitely bok quality…but will he get more opportunities in the green and gold? Or will HM just give Coetzee all the opportunities? If HM can rotate locks so easily why not rotate Kolisi and Coetzee?
It seems that players of colour are not really getting much opportunities to prove themselves and poor Lambie is also in Limbo, probably to keep the only backline player of colour HM seems to trust in the starting line up, apart from Habs…
And I know some will not agree but its a shame to lose a player like Johnson who is also a quality player…he might not be the first, second or third best at 8 but then again where should Spies really land in the pecking order…??
And a player like Steenkamp, another guy who can still be in the bok setup but isnt… why not ? The great players who happen to be players of colour should not be let go so easily, because they represent the country in a much more important way…
What will happen to a guy like Rhule in the future? Will he struggle to get an opportunity like the other players of colour who have performed brilliantly for the past 4/5 seasons but are discarded and struggle to break into the starting lineup?
Imo its not a very important goal to get players of colour to represent the boks and it should be because we have quality players who will make the country proud…they just need more opportunities…
Wake up HM and smell the black coffee…
27 Sep 2012, 10:17 am
@katman-111:
Ja. That’s a travesty of justice, if there ever was one.
Nice to see Kevin de Klerk giving Cheeky the finger when asked to loan them their players in the S15.
27 Sep 2012, 10:18 am
@Tacitus-94:
Love it when you get all brooding and mysterious like
27 Sep 2012, 10:18 am
@katman-101:
nee man, hy bak brood
one brood many broods
to be making broods = brooding
27 Sep 2012, 10:18 am
Ke O getting it wrong again,,,,, Boks by 20.
27 Sep 2012, 10:19 am
@Tacitus-107:
No little blue bulls then?
27 Sep 2012, 10:19 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-113:
To what purpose? So that he can come on and kick 40% of his kicks at goal? Not good enough.
My argument in Morne’s favour during the World Cup was always based on his superior goalkicking, and with that having gone to sh*t, there’s nothing left.
Until he sorts that out, Elton is a better option than him on the bench.
27 Sep 2012, 10:20 am
@shooter-119:
Whatsup Shooter
Tell me about your guns
27 Sep 2012, 10:21 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl-110: Forward dominance. All our teams are brought up with the forwards dominating. The crash ball inside centre works brilliantly from quick front foot ball. The one-off runners work brilliantly if the ball is quick and the defense cannot organise itself quickly. This is our biggest worry. We have the youngsters, now we should spend the money on getting world class forwards back to Loftus. Guthro, Bakkies and Danie Rossouw will make a huge difference to this team and if WP get Jantjies and with the Sharks playing Lambie we should target Goosen even if we have to pay the Cheetahs a R2m fee to buy him out of his contract.
27 Sep 2012, 10:21 am
What’s a hendsopper
27 Sep 2012, 10:22 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl-104:
i dont know which is worse, them or the kiwis
dirty water indeed
27 Sep 2012, 10:22 am
@Horings-112:
In my view, we have **** players on top of **** coaches.
Kruger and Greyling have been average for years, and yet we don’t buy a guy like Coenie or whoever?
Locks I’m satisfied with, given that Flip and Juandre are away at the Boks.
Loosies are ok for Currie Cup, but it is unacceptable that we don’t have at least two international quality loose forwards in our team. Dewald Potgieter and Stegman are long past their sell bye dates, sadly, and should have been replaced by new starts long since. Letting CJ Stander go while keeping those players is simply unacceptable.
Ironically enough, loyalty seems to be killing us at the moment.
27 Sep 2012, 10:22 am
@Dawn-120:
No new ones recently, no.
27 Sep 2012, 10:24 am
I’m on strike today so will be blogging and abusing people at will.
27 Sep 2012, 10:24 am
@Tacitus-121:
fair enough.
we will find out on saturday just how good these options are.
for me
the feeling is
there’s a storm comin…
27 Sep 2012, 10:26 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-129:
Change it
i_love_you_mornesteyn
27 Sep 2012, 10:27 am
@Tacitus-126: Hi Tac, Juan Smith seems to be in the market. If he does not receive a huge offer from a local franchise, he’ll be joining Bayonne in France sometime during next season
27 Sep 2012, 10:30 am
@Brigadier Van Zyl-104: The WP/Shark cabal?
This has made my day. If the day, the week, the month, the year or for that matter the world, ends right now – I will be smiling.
27 Sep 2012, 10:30 am
@Dawn-124:
hehe
its hensopper
and is basically a guy who had the biggest mouth for a cause and argues for a certain course od actions but once the doodoo hits the fan and bullets start flying he pulls out and sits on the sidelines making up excuses for why its suddenly not the best thing to do
kinda like whats happened with meyer and his coaching spell so far.
there were a lot of cheerleader who were nowhere to be found when the kak got real.
27 Sep 2012, 10:30 am
@CharlesM-131:
Yes, that’s what we need. Experienced veterans to give our youngsters some backbone.
27 Sep 2012, 10:31 am
@Tacitus-126: Werner Kruger is really disappointing. We are getting van der Merwe from the Cheetahs, who seems to be a meneer and we should also get Guthro back. Probably the best loosehead in the world. Loosies are okay if we bring through Botha, Cooke, Liebenberg, Adendorff, etc, but Botha, Stander and Marnus Schoeman would have been a brilliant combination and we let two of them go.
27 Sep 2012, 10:31 am
@Dawn-130:
ag come now dawn… what is love…?..
27 Sep 2012, 10:32 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-133:
Well that’s just silly.
If you don’t agree with something, why should you continue supporting it?
I disagree with Meyer’s loyalty to an off-form Morne Steyn. I could have told him the guy wouldn’t improve after half time, and that Goosen should have come on after 20 minutes in the first half.
Did he not watch any of the Bulls Super Rugby games this year?
Meyer is loyal, that much you can’t take away from him. But in Morne’s case it was misplaced, in my view.
27 Sep 2012, 10:33 am
@CharlesM-131: I would sell my home and give the proceeds to the WPRFU in order to assist them with the purchase of Juan if this was a few years back. At this stage, it might be risky spending plenty moolah on what had become an unknown entity.
My fave Bok of all time – and the fellow I hoped would captain after Smit went, BUT, at this stage, a risky buy for about 2/3′s of your new player ‘budget’ for the next 3 years IMHO.
27 Sep 2012, 10:34 am
@Horings-135:
No offense, but Liebenberg and Adendorf look like midgets to me. Good at junior level, but will probably fade at senior level. I hope I’m wrong.
Arno Botha is a star in the making. So too is CJ Stander. We needed both of them. Now that CJ is gone, we need to shop around for someone like Marcell Coetzee.
And that Grant Hattingh is a pansy. Send him back where he came from.
27 Sep 2012, 10:34 am
@Dawn-120: No, little blue balls instead.
27 Sep 2012, 10:36 am
@Tacitus-134: I agree about Stander. There was a long discussion on this site about him – some said he was chasing the big bucks too soon. It has sinced surfaced that HM regards him as a future hooker – to which Stander obviously objected. (Once again I suppose being too “small”). Stander still has a big future IMO. I have to admit the little I have seen of Arno Botha, he seems to be a great prospect. Like you have said the young players need mentors: Kolisi for instance said that Schalk and Duane helped him a lot. Maybe Juan Smith can be the man for the mentoring of the young guns
27 Sep 2012, 10:37 am
@fever-64: why are you asking Keo?
27 Sep 2012, 10:40 am
@Jeez-115: That’s a lot of kak, to put it mildly.
You seem to want to make an angry point about racist selections, but never really get there. By your own admission, the “players of colour” that should have been selected are either injured (Chilli, JPP, Kolisi) or considered too small (Aplon).
I find it’s best to spend a little time figuring out whether I really have a point before wading in and trying to make up a point as I go along. Use it / don’t use it.
27 Sep 2012, 10:40 am
@CharlesM-141:
Never heard the hooker idea about CJ Stander before. But I was concerned about his lack of height, I must admit. 1.88m or something is a bit short for any but your fetcher flank.
Anyway, we need a new Pedrie Wannenburg at the Bulls. Was much maligned by the fans of other provinces, but he didn’t play around 100 games for us during our most successful era for nothing.
Big, hard player, and surprisingly mobile. And better skills than Jacques Potgieter, that’s for sure.
27 Sep 2012, 10:40 am
@Tacitus-137:
hehe i’m kidding tac,
fair enough agreed on morne, but i think these are two different situations.
i too would have given goosen more game time in the nz test as well the oz game once it was clear morne’s boot had gone to ****.
but to go from replacing a failing kicker (who you know has the ability when he’s on form ) with a another kick who’s on the bench to a situation where you have two youngsters neither of whom has shown anything yet..?.. i think is a little rash
its either gonna work for us or its not, especially as i do not think the pack will have it their way or be able to win it without the kicker.
27 Sep 2012, 10:41 am
@The Sharks rugby pedigree is packaged as dog food-138: I suppose whoever signs Juan, will first insist on a thorough medical check-up. An Achilles is a bad injury. Hopefully this extended break from rugby assisted in healing it properly. I suppose it will only show once he starts playing again.
27 Sep 2012, 10:41 am
**** = t u r d
27 Sep 2012, 10:42 am
wtf?
this article was hilarious.
27 Sep 2012, 10:42 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-129:
The storm’s been over since 12.30, 26 September 2012.
27 Sep 2012, 10:43 am
@i_love_u_bakkiesbotha-145:
We’ve got Lambie and Frans Steyn in the team as well. And Ruan Pienaar. More than enough flyhalf cover.
I honestly don’t think Morne offers anything special at the moment that the others don’t. Please note, this is assessing Morne currently, not when he was in top form during 2009.
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